Literary Terms Review

Repetition of syllables, typically at the end of a verse line

A brief, intentional reference to history in an outside work

Person or group of people for which a piece is intended

 5-lined stanza or short poem

Figure of speech composed of a striking exaggeration

Technique of an individual author; depends on each author's syntax, word choice, and tone

A metrical line ending at a grammatical boundary or break, or ending with punctuation (colon, semi-colon, etc.)

A single line of poetry

Poetic unit of three lines, rhymed or unrhymed

Grouping of lines separated from others in a poem

A six-line stanza, or the final six lines of a 14-line Italian/Petrarchan sonnet

Using words that deviate from the conventional in order to convey a complicated meaning/colorful writing, etc.

A brief, intentional reference to the Bible

Poetry that follows fixed rules, such as a specified number of lines; a regular pattern of rhythm/rhyme

Repetition of consonant sounds within sentences, phrases, or in poems

Mood created by a poem’s vocabulary, metrical regularity or irregularity, syntax, figurative language, and rhyme

 Extended metaphor that often elaborates and controls a large section of a poem or the entire poem

Repetition of initial stressed, consonant sounds in a series of words within a phrase or verse line

An eight-line stanza or poem

A four-part comparison between two things, typically to explain or clarify

Line/verse that breaks without end punctuation

A figure of speech in which a related term is substituted for the word itself (smaller piece represents the whole)

The unique voice within a poem, not to be confused with the author

Analysis of a poem's metrical patterns by organizing its lines into feet of stressed/unstressed syllables

A seemingly self-contradictory phrase or concept that actually presents a truth

Two successive rhyming lines in a verse, with the same meter, forming a complete thought

Comparison that is made directly/less directly without using "like," "as," or "than"

 Rhythmical pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in verse

Provides a phrase with grammatically similar structure or style

Comparison made using “as,” “like,” or “than"

Describes/mimics the sound of the object/action it refers to when it is spoken

Using one thing (a physical object or phenomenon) to represent something more abstract

Poem that expresses the poet's feelings and emotions

Brings together TWO contradictory words

Non-metrical, non-rhyming lines that closely follow the natural rhythms of speech

Work in which special intensity is given to the expression of feelings and ideas using distinctive style and rhythm

Something that reveals or is a sign for something else, often abstract or otherworldly

Pattern of end rhymes in a stanza (ABBA BCCB, for example)

Address to a dead/absent person, or personification as if he/she were present

Expressive, nonliteral use of language

Short poem depicting peaceful/idealized country scenes

A brief, intentional reference to another piece of literature in an outside work

A poem that tells a story

Describes an abstraction, a thing, or a non-human form as if it were a person

Repeating a word or phrase

Reversal of syntactically correct order of subjects, verbs, and objects in a sentence

Repetition of vowel sounds without repeating consonants; sometimes called vowel rhyme

Line repeated in a changed context or with minor changes in the repeated part (oral tradition)

Vivid or figurative language that invokes any of the five senses

A brief, intentional reference to classical Greco/Roman period or mythology in an outside work

A four-line stanza, often with various rhyme schemes